4to (182 x 136 mm). p6 a-o6 (1r title, 1v preface, 2r tables, a1r text, o6r colophon, o6v printer's device [Juchhoff 3]). 90 leaves; leaves e4, f6, g6 k2, l4, o6 supplied from another copy. 20th century binding by Jean de Gonet, russet and brown reversed calf doublures.

"One of the most beautiful illustrated Dutch books. Dialogys creaturarum was several times reprinted and adorned with exquisite woodcuts which could be praised for its naivety or its cunning" (Landwehr, Fable Books, p. X). The text consists of 122 dialogues largely populated by anthropomorphic creatures. Each dialogue is further divided into two sections, the first part depicting an encounter between these creatures; two is the usual number, though some dialogues have one or three. Their experience is summed up in a moral, typically delivered by the defeated party, which is then exemplified in the second half of the dialogue through citations from historiography, literature and sacred scripture. “The book consists of a series of these moralistic dialogues between creatures such as that between the partridge and the rose tree. The partridge discovers that every rose has its thorn : “the rose be both swete and softe, but the thornis be sharpe and prykkyth me ofte” (The Art of Botanical illustration, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, Library Gazette, 1960). Common texts cited include the pagan authors Seneca the Younger and Valerius Maximus, along with the Christian writers Paul, Augustine, and John Chrystostom and compilations such as the Vitae patrum and Legenda aurea.

The great precision with which these references are cited—often including book and chapter numbers—suggests that the Dialogus was designed as a reference text containing recommendations for further reading, and more specifically as a handbook for constructing sermons (as indicated in the Preface). This purpose does not, however, detract from its entertaining style, which derives in no small part from the passionate dialogue that takes place between the creatures and the fast-paced descriptions of their battles against one another. These features explain the popularity of the Dialogus, which ran through numerous editions from the late 15th century onwards.

“The book consists of a series of these moralistic dialogues between creatures such as that between the partridge and the rose tree. The partridge discovers that every rose has its thorn : “the rose be both swete and softe, but the thornis be sharpe and prykkyth me ofte” (Haslewood translation)” The Art of Botanical illustration, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, Library Gazette, 196.

References in the text point to an origin in northern Italy in the 14th century. The authorship of these fables, some of which derive from Aesop, is ascribed to either Nicolaus Pergamenus or a Milanese doctor, Mayno de Mayneriis (fl.1290-5-1370), with each claim resting on a single manuscript only. The Nicolas de Bergame attribution is based on a manuscript held at the Bibliothèque nationale (MS. lat 8512), and the Mayno de Mayneriis (Magninus Mediolanensis), based on a manuscript held at Cremone. Based on the low number of surviving manuscripts, however, its circulation could not have been wide. With the introduction and the first publication of the text by Leeu at Gouda, the book proved to be immensely popular. Leeu himself produced further editions and had it translated into French and Dutch to broaden his market at the same time as it was being reprinted across Europe. The Dyalogus was the first book to ever be printed in Sweden (1483). The woodcuts, with one exception, are those used in the first edition, and are the work of the first Gouda woodcutter (cf. Conway, First Gouda Woodcutter).

“In his study of Antwerp printers and the English market, F. C. Avis estimates that of the sixty or so Antwerp presses in existence before 1540, between five or nine were engaged in the preparation of books for England, some in Latin, others in English. It is possible that Caxton imported Leeu’s editions of the Dyalogus; “at least a substantial part of this edition was sold wholesale to England” (in “Caxton and the Low Countries”, Journal of the Printing Historical Society, 11, 1976-77, p. 30). Although there is no surviving evidence of a trading relation between them, the nature of their outputs suggests that they were competitors in the same market. Caxton’s Reynard is a translation from Leeu’s edition of 1479, and after Caxton’s death in 1491 Leeu moved quickly to supply English books (...) Leeu reprinted three of Caxton’s titles (The History of Jason, Paris and Vienne, and The Chronicles of England).” G. Kratzmann et E. Gee, The Dialoges of Creature Moralyzed, a critical edition, Leiden, 1988, p. 55.

The illustrations are composed of woodcut ornamental initials in 2 sizes, 121 woodcuts from 119 blocks (two repeated in a6v-b1r) attributed to the Premier Maitre de Gouda (Conway, The Woodcutters in the Netherlands in the Fifteenth century, Cambridge, 1884, pp. 32-34 et 216-220), first used in the first edition (1480). 37 lines, double column; type: 5:82G (text), 8:99G (title, headings).

Rarity: ISTC records 18 copies of this 1491 edition, 3 of them described as incomplete, besides these, 2 others (Library of Congress and Cologne) are also incomplete; fable books were most often well-read and usually carry multiple traces of use, as is the case here. In the market, any edition of this book is rare, the Otto Schafer copy of the first edition sold in the early 1990’s for 525,000 u$s, now in a public library, and only one copy of this edition, that of the Marquis de Bute, sold at Christie’s, London, 15 March 1995, n° 279, £56.000.

Not in the BSB or BnF; HC 6130; GW M22253; BMC IX, 195 (IA. 49829); Polain(B) 1267; CA 564; IDL 1507; Goff N-156. Of the fifteen known copies in public libraries, only one is outside Europe. Hain, 6130. A. M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Londres, 1935, II, pp. 563- 564.

Provenance: Late 15th century English medical inscription to title page; various early annotations in Latin; British Museum [Museum Britannicum] duplicate, stamp and 1787 deaccession stamp; Bois Penrose (1860 – 1921, The celebrated library of Boies Penrose, Sotheby’s Londres, 1971); Eric Sexton (1902 – 1980), American collector of incunables (Christie’s New York, 8 avril 1981, n° 9, $9.500); Jean A. Bonna, his bookplate.

The English note on the title page, written on brown ink, contains a treatment for the plague:

Item alia medicina pro pestilenciam

In any manner of wyse be not with owt these thynges

folowyng In tyme of pestelens in primis boyl

armanak id & sanguis draconis id therra tagl-

iata id restwell id byng obiter Take all these

and bray them togeder and serfe them & put them by the

powders in a box & take thereof on the knyf poy[nt]

twyse in the weke als mych as wyll fyll [a]

hesyll not shell & take als mych fyne tre...

as a beyn & breyk it well in a coppe with ayl

drynke thereof a greyt draghte & thys is

servatyne takyn twyse in aweke & yf a man

or a woman be enfecte gyfe thame a medyl

with in xij owres als mych of thes pounded as

wull fyll halfe a walnot shell with als ...

Treacle and it shall save ther lywys with grace

of God.

Supplied leaves with marginal wormhole and early amateur pen drawings, some staining, most leaves re-hinged, else good.